52 Ancestors: Margaret Legace (1861-1940)

Margaret Ann Legace is my Great Grandmother. She is the wife of Alexander Christie from an earlier post.

Margaret or Maggie, as records seem to refer to her as, was born September 17-22, 1861 in Bathurst, New Brunswick, Canada. She was the 1st born child of Isaac Legace and Thersile (Theresa) Daigle. Margaret was baptised when she was just a few days old, sponsors were Michael Daigle and Angel Pitre (more research needed to find out who they were), in West Bathurst at Ste. Famille Parish. The more research I do, the more I find that Ste. Famille Parish is a big part of my roots on my mothers side.  So many, almost everyone so far, have either been baptised, married or buried in this parish. Maybe I should do some research on the parish.

Margaret lost her mother when she was between 7-10 years old. She would have had to assume the role of running the household; cooking, cleaning and looking after her 2 younger sisters while her father was working the farm. Margaret would have continued this daunting task until sometime between 1871-1873 when her father re-married. This most likely was the reason she was unable to read and write as Margaret would not have been able to go to school with all of these household duties to look after. She most likely continued to assist her step-mother (who was deaf) with the running of the household and looking after the two brothers who were born before she was married.

On October 30, 1882 when Margaret was 21 years old she married Alexander Christie in West Bathurst at Ste. Famille Parish, the same parish she and Alexander were baptised. The witnesses to their marriage were William Christie and Mary Jane Boyle. William Christie could have been Alexander's brother. I don't know who Mary Jane Boyle could be as I have not found any connection to a Boyle in the family tree yet.

Margaret and Alexander has 12 children (4 girls and 8 boys) all who were able to read, write and speak both French and English. I wonder if Margaret felt that this was a priority for her children as she never went to school and only learned to read and write and speak English after her marriage to Alexander. I wonder if she learned along side her youngest children.

Margaret lived her entire life in West Bathurst. She died Jan 27, 1940 from hypertension (heart attack) when she was 78 years old.  Margaret outlived her husband and 6 of her 12 children.